There are elements of farce, too, as extra-curricular relationships are introduced in tandem with visiting partners from home and wacky siblings. There’s some discussion in the film about national identity, particularly relevant given the setting, but mostly the melting pot scenario is used for its comic potential, with playful jokes about linguistic misunderstandings and slight personality clashes abounding. In Catalonia Xavier winds up in a cramped flatshare that comes across as a western European league of nations, with fellow residents from England, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Belgium. It revolves around a straight-laced young man in his mid-20s named Xavier, played by Romain Duris, who leaves his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) and native Paris behind for a year in Barcelona to take part in the Erasmus program, which facilitates student exchanges so that they can study in foreign countries. L’Auberge Espagnole, a film that has also been released under the assorted titles Pot Luck, The Spanish Apartment, The Spanish Hotel, Una Casa De Locos and (my personal favourite) Euro-pudding, is the first film in a trilogy of dramedies by French director Cédric Klapisch.
